The other night at the Florida Republican debate Mitt Romney made a great statement:

“What an audacious and arrogant thing for the Democrats to say as Hillary Clinton did that they are responsible for the progress that the surge has seen by virtue that they are trying to pull out so quickly. Look, the success over there is due to the blood and courage of service men and women and to General Petraeus and to President Bush and not to “General” Hillary Clinton.”

Undoubtedly, at the forthcoming State Of The Union address, President Bush will mention the success of the new direction in Iraq which he started a year ago. That new direction was a new SecDef, a new CENTOM commander, a new Iraq commander, new forces sent to Iraq, a new strategy in Iraq focusing on counter-insurgency and counter-Al Queda operations. This new direction has led to a dramatic decline in violence in Iraq, a decline in American casualties, a rise in American prestige around the world, and in well over half of the arbitrary political benchmarks that the Democratic Congress imposed. When they are told of this successful effort on the part of American troops, will Democrats applaud? Will they rise up in appreciation of the men and women of our armed forces, the efforts they’ve made, their heroism, and their sacrifice? OR will the Democrats sit quietly? Will they boo? It will be interesting to see how much they physically support the troops by merely standing or sitting, by clapping or hissing.